First off, my method of doing this self-supported
triathlon was to do it Xterra style,
the type of triathlon I do with the most frequency.Honestly, I haven’t done a road tri in over a year!I’ve only done Fat-Tire tris and Xterra
tris during this time. So, I
decided that the most familiar way to do this tri was to do it OFF ROAD style!

Race Prep

What I envisioned doing and what I actually did
was practically the same thing.The main goal of my Simply Stu triathlon was to do as much of the race
as I could OFF ROAD, eliminating as much pavement time on my mountain bike as
possible.My intuition and
knowledge of my local neighborhood, the Ahwatukee Foothills community
of Phoenix, Arizona and the Desert
Classic trails of South
Mountain Park (the 2nd largest municipal park in the United
States, BTW) really paid off, allowing me to gauge what course I should ride
and run to get me in at exactly 15 miles on the bike and 3.1 miles on the run,
respectively.

So, what I ended up doing is parking my Audi A4
2.8 Quattro (I’ve lovingly named her Audrey the Audi) at the
trailhead to the park along Warpaint Drive, where I would begin my off-road
biking and transition to 100% trail running for the run portion.I drove to the trailhead with my
mountain bike on the roof rack of my car
and biked to the community HOA pool where I would do my swimming.

SWIM

I performed my swim in the Mountain Park Ranch HOA (Home Owners
Association) heated community pool at Mountain Parkway and Ranch Circle South
in the heart of Ahwatukee.Now,
the HOA has three full Olympic-sized lap pools for homeowners, but only one of
them is heated year-round.Although I could have chosen one of the non-heated versions closer to
the trailhead, I decided on using the heated one that has recently been
refinished with Pebbletec and new tile
throughout.

BIKE

The first portion of my bike had to be on
pavement, sadly, but what made it a bit challenging was that the course I took
threw in two good climbs on asphalt before I reached the trailhead.The biking started for me climbing up a
pretty big climb on Mountain Parkway, then through the stoplight at Ray Road,
continuing up on Ranch Circle North, left on 36th Street, left on
Knox Rd, followed by a right on Warpaint Drive.Then came pavement hill #2.Nice steep climb up to the trailhead.Yup, Audrey the Audi was still
there.NICE!Now starts the single-track goodness.

Here’s a map of my 2.1 miles of pavement on the
MTB before reaching sweet, blessed desert dirt single-track:

(Click on image for a larger version of the map)

Next, I continued on the Desert Classic single-track,
a trail I’m very familiar with.A
nice, rolling, rocky trail used by many mountain bikers, hikers and outdoor
enthusiasts.Much different from
the typical XTERRA course, though, which tend to be seriously insane climbs
followed by long, fast decents.I’m not the biggest fan of those, but hey… I do XTERRA, so I can’t argue
if I keep on entering these events, can I?!?!

Don’t get me wrong, though… this isn’t a walk in
the park.There are definitely
plenty of steep climbing sections where you’re coming out of a wash and you’ve
got to CLICK CLICK CLICKITY CLICK through the gears so you’re not caught high
and dry on a section where you need to be in a granny gear to make it up a
crazy slope!Needless to say, my
heart rate remained well into the “anaerobic” level for most of the ride.Lactic acid was my enemy, as it always
will on these off-road rides.More
on that later as I explain my sojourn into the realm of glycogen depletion.

So, I rambled on through the single track that is Desert
Classic.Here are the maps of
the course I took.Click on the
thumbnails for a larger view!

I also recorded some audio from the ride.I planted my iRiver iFP-799 MP3
player/recorder with Big Squid bi-directional mic in my hydration unit pack and
recorded the entire ride.I will be putting it here later.Stay tuned!

So, towards the end of the bike, I could feel the
effects of remaining in the anaerobic state too long.Mucho lactic acid buildup in the legs.During the bike, I drank only water,
but also took in a Clif Shot
“Mmm Chocolate”.That seemed
to help, but didn’t cure everything.

Bike time:1:34:00(9.57 MPH)

T2

So, I got back to Audrey the Audi and was feeling
pretty good, if not a bit torn up due to the anaerobic time on the bike.No worries!Swallowed about 20 ounces of Gatorade Fierce Melon and
took off the Oakley MTB shorts and put on some running shorts over my Zoot
tri-suit.I also put on the “crip” blue
bandana and headed out to do the run.

RUN

Felt OK, although the temperature was now in the mid
80-degree mark.No worries about
the heat, it was the lactic acid in my thighs that made me cramp up a bit
during the run.Nothing a little
pause to stretch (ouch, sorry, Brett) wouldn’t cure!Made it back to the car and felt really good about my entire
run, and “race”, for that matter.